Jacquard Weaving and Designing :: CHAPTER VII GAUZE

CHAPTER VII GAUZE

The principle of weaving gauze with shafts and healds applies equally to making it with a harness, though perhaps the latter is simpler, as there is not the same trouble in the arranging of drafts; and, in intricate work, the number of doup leaves required for shaft mountings adds considerably to the trouble of the weaver and tackler.

The simplest, or in any case the most ready, method of weaving gauze in a harness, is to use an ordinary harness, and form the gauze by means of one or more doups and standards in front of it. Suppose we have have a 400 machine with the harness tied up in simple repeats of 400; any desired pattern can be put upon the cloth to the extent of 400 hooks of the jacquard as in ordinary harness work, but it cannot be made of any texture desired—it must be made to suit the working of the doups in front of the harness. If the open work is to be a plain gauze with one shot into each shed, then the pattern must be plain cloth, as the doup standard must be raised and sunk alternately for each shot; but any desired form or figure can be made in plain texture on the 400 hooks, and the cloth will consist of a plain figure on a gauze ground; or it might as well be a gauze figure on a plain ground.

Those not acquainted with figured gauze work, have considerable difficulty in understanding how to make plain or gauze as required on the cloth.

It is easy to understand that working the harness without the doups can make plain cloth, and also that working the doups and standards, and portion of the harness, for alternate shots, can make gauze; but the difficulty is to thoroughly comprehend how, when working gauze, to neutralise the crossing of that portion of the warp that is to form the plain figure. There are two ways of neutralising the crossing effect of the doups on any thread or number of threads that may be required for the figure: first, by not raising the mail or mails carrying the crossing threads, or threads in the doups, but forming the plain by raising the mails carrying the threads not in the doups, alternately with the doup standard; and, secondly, if the threads not in the doups are raised along with the doup standard, no crossing can take place; but this would not suit for working plain cloth, as these mails must be down when the doup standard is up in order to form plain cloth.

Fig. 126

If a different gauze is required, say one with 2 shots into each shed, or between the crossings, then the solid texture might be a rib or mat; or if it suited the pattern, as in the case of dice work, two doups could be employed, so that one could rest when the other is working the gauze. Fig. 126 is a plain gauze and plain texture, common dice pattern, which could be wrought with shafts, but shows the principle of working with the harness as well. This could be wrought with one doup in front of the harness. To work the dice A the mails carrying the threads not in the doups would be raised alternately with the doup standard, and thus form plain cloth; and at the same time, to make the dice B a gauze, the mails carrying the threads in the doups would be wrought alternately with the doup standard. For the dices C and D, this would be reversed. In case of the gauze having to be made with, say, 3 shots into each shed, and 2 threads twisting round 2 to give openness of texture, it will be seen that it could only be wrought with one doup, provided 3 shots went to each shed of the solid dice, as the doup would require to be up for 3 shots in succession, and down for the same. If plain cloth were required it would be necessary to have a doup and standard for each dice, so that one could remain down when the other is raised for gauzing; this would allow the harness to work any texture on the solid dice, the doup of which is not gauzing. If it were required to work a diagonal stripe of plain and gauze, as shown in Fig. 127, with 2 weft shots coming in between each crossing of the gauze, 6 doups would be required in front of the harness, whereas if only one shot came between the crossings only one doup would be required. It will be seen that there are 6 splitfuls of warp to one repeat of the pattern, and that the change from the plain to the gauze is at a different time for each; therefore, on account of the doup standards having to be raised for 2 shots in succession when a portion of the cloth is plain texture, it is necessary for each splitful of warp to have its own doup so that it can be crossed without interfering with the plain texture in the other portion of the cloth.

Fig. 127

This pattern would be better suited for a shaft mounting than for a harness with doups in front, but could be wrought with a gauze harness more easily than with either. The advantage of using a harness with doups in front, in this case, over a shaft mounting, would be that the plain stripe could be figured if desired, and the gauze stripe might go in steps of two or three splitfuls alike, which would give much bolder stripes.

When more than one or two sets of doups would be required to be used in front of a harness, it is advisable to adopt a true gauze harness, as the doup shafts come in the way of the weaver. A gauze harness has the doups in the harness, so that they can be lifted independently, which admits of indiscriminate figuring on either the gauze or solid portion of the cloth.

When using doups in front of the harness it is not necessary that the plain or solid cloth should be all a plain or unfigured texture; any suitable warp figure may be formed on the plain by the harness, but weft figures cannot be made on the upper side of the cloth, because, though the harness can be raised for any number of shots in succession to form a figure by the warp, having it sunk would not in the same way form a weft figure, as in crossing the gauze a portion of the yarn would be raised by the doup standard, which cannot be prevented, unless by having more doups than one. A harness with doups in front is better suited for working stripes than any other class of work, and it is in this class of work that gauze can be made most effective.

When figuring with gauze, unless several shots are thrown into each shed, or between the crossings of the gauze threads, and 3 or more warp threads are twisted together, the openness of the texture is not sufficient to make a good contrast between the plain and gauze unless the fabric is very light; and even with 2 threads round 2, and throwing 4 to 6 shots into each twist, the contrast is not so great as might be desired when the cloth is heavy. A portion of the weft, say every second or third shot, might be made to pass either over or under the gauzed texture and interwoven only with the solid portion of the cloth, the flushed or loose weft to be cropped off afterwards. In stripes, not only can this be done, but the warp may be set much thinner or wider in the reed for the gauze: say every second or third split may be left empty; or it may be of a different description of yarn—a fancy twist if desired, or in threads of different colours. A fancy stripe with three threads to the split in a reed, set 30 splits per inch, and every second split of the gauze portion left empty, makes a very effective pattern for fine work, with say 80 picks per inch; or 120 picks might be used, and every third or fourth one not wrought into the gauze, but flushed over to be cut off afterwards. There might be 2 thick threads or 4 finer ones to each split of the gauze, and 4 to 6 shots into each crossing, this, of course, to be regulated to suit circumstances and taste; one thing must, however, be remembered—viz. that when made too bold or open the warp ribs are liable to slide on the weft, and this is the chief defect in gauze when made open, especially when a smooth, clean yarn, as linen, is used.

Fig. 128

Fig. 129

Fig. 130

When working stripes, any pattern, or any texture or style of cloth, whether single, double, or pile work, may be used for the solid stripes, or the whole cloth may consist of stripes made of combinations of gauze and solid textures. One set of stripes may be wrought quite independently of the other by having the yarn on separate beams, and when only one set of stripes is gauzed, the others are not drawn into the doup heddles, so are quite independent of them. The doup heddles may be spaced or otherwise as desired. When working with doups in front of the harness, there must be a slackener for the crossing threads for each doup standard, same as for heddle work. Figs. 128, 129, and 130 show some of the methods of slackening in use. In Figs. 128 and 129, A is the yarn beam, B the back rail, C and D the vibrating bars or slackeners, C acts as a fulcrum; and in Fig. 128 the bar D presses the crossing yarn down and is raised by the tappet E, which may be either above or below a lever on the end of the bar C, a spring on the lever regulating it, to hold it against the tappet. In Fig. 129 the bar D is sunk to relieve the crossing yarn, by drawing up the cord G, which is attached to the jacquard or dobby, the spring H holding the lever E down when it is relieved. Fig. 130 is similar to Fig. 129, but for two doups; it is shown both in perspective and in end view, and will be clearly understood. C and D must be set at such a distance above each other as will permit of the traverse of D without C being moved. Two or more shafts of heddles might also be used which could hold the crossing yarn either up or down, same as the bars, till they are acted on by the jacquard or by a tappet.

Fig. 131

Fig. 132

Designing.—When designing a pattern for gauze, with doups in front of the harness, it is only necessary to set off a few hooks of the jacquard to work the doups and slackener, and design the fancy portion on the remaining hooks; or if the gauze and slackener are wrought with tappets the full jacquard will be available for the figured portion, the same as if no gauze were being made. If the doups and slackener are to be wrought by the jacquard the pattern can be painted on the remaining hooks, and the dots for working these can be added afterwards, agreeably to the texture of the gauze required. The doup standard and slackener should act together, and the doup or half leaf should rise when the harness carrying the crossing threads rises. If the doup standard is to be raised every second shot, as is required when plain cloth has to be wrought with one doup, it might be wrought by a tappet, and the doup or loose heald might be raised by the machine for every shot, as it must rise with its standard as well as when the harness raises any of the yarn drawn into the doup. The doup shaft is best held down by a light spring. Indiarubber about 3/16 or 1/4 in. in diameter suits very well. One spring at each side of either one or two ply of this should be sufficient. If the number of rows in the harness is such that it will correspond with the number of threads to be twisted together, or be a multiple of them, it will be all the more convenient, though it is not necessary for it to be so. For instance, if 1 thread is twisted round 1, =2, an 8-row harness would give 4 repeats of this in each row; but if 1 thread were twisted round 2, =3, then 1 row of the harness would give 2 repeats, or hold 2 splitfuls of warp and 2 threads over, so that another thread would have to be taken from the back of the next row. For this a 6-row harness would be more convenient, which could be got by leaving 2 rows of the machine idle, and designing the pattern on 6-row paper, or ruling 8-row paper to 6-row after the design is painted. To work fancy textures with gauze by means of a harness with doups in front, both must be arranged to suit each other, unless a large number of doups be employed. For instance, a 2-and-2 twill could be wrought with 1 doup leaf in front of the harness by making 1 thread of the gauze twist round 3, and throwing 2 shots into each crossing, as shown in Fig. 131. If 1 thread were to be twisted round 1 with a 2-and-2 twill, and 2 shots to the gauze crossing, 2 doup leaves would be required, as shown in Fig. 132. A 4-thread fancy twill can be wrought with 1 doup, as shown in Fig. 133, 1 thread twisting round 3 and 4 shots into each crossing of the gauze. Satins or regular twills are more difficult to work, unless by making an irregular gauze. Take a 5-end satin, which has the threads over 4 and under 1. The gauze might have 4 shots and 1 shot into each crossing alternately, and be easily wrought with 1 doup; but if 2 or 3 shots had to go to each crossing it would be different, as the doup would require to sink for 1 shot out of 5, in order to let the threads drawn into it bind in the twilled portion of the cloth, or otherwise the binding would have to take place on these threads when the doup is down, which it could do if it suited otherwise. But it must be remembered that when solid cloth and gauze are working together, the former is made by raising the doup standard and those mails which carry the threads that are not drawn into the doup, leaving stationary the mails carrying the crossing threads, except where gauze is being made; therefore, in working a 5-end satin, if the doup held up any of the threads for, say, 3 shots, and then sank for 3, there would be no way of holding up these threads in the twill portion to make them pass over 4 shots, as a 5-end satin must do, for if the harness twines carrying these threads are raised, they will cause a cross to be made instead of completing the twill. Patterns of this description should all be wrought in a gauze harness. In the figures given the gauze crossings are represented by dotted lines where they are raised by the harness, for sake of distinction.

Fig. 133

HAND-LOOM GAUZE HARNESS.

Fig. 134 Fig. 134a

A large quantity of goods are still being made in the hand loom on the gauze principle. These are mostly for curtains known as Cretes or Madras muslins, and for antimacassars or chair backs. They are chiefly woven in and about Glasgow, and in Newtownards in the North of Ireland. These goods are made on the half-harness principle—that is, half the warp is drawn into the harness and the other half passes through the harness and is drawn into a set of heddles in front. This mounting is shown in Fig. 134. It will be seen that every alternate thread is drawn into one of the harness mails and all the threads are drawn through a pair of clasped leaves of heddles A B; those that are drawn into the mails are drawn through the under clasp of the leaf A, and those that are not in the mails through the upper clasp of the leaf B. The threads are next drawn through the doups as shown, those in the mails being in the back set, or upper doups. These doups are made different from those generally used, the doup or half-heald being connected with two standards; this is for the purpose of throwing less strain on the yarn. When the harness is drawn the shaft A is also raised, B being sunk, as well as the front set of doups. As the yarn in the harness is also drawn through the back set of doups, it follows that they must be relieved to allow the harness to raise the yarn. This might be done, and sometimes is done, by sinking the ordinary doup shaft and letting the yarn draw the doup through its standard; but in this case the standard C is raised, which allows the thread to rise in the doup, as shown at Fig. 134a, without having to draw it up, and at the same time all the doups are kept firm in their places by the standard D, thus preventing any entanglement in a fine set of doups. The distance between the harness and back leaves is 4 in., and between the back leaves and gauze mounting 3 in. The cloth is a plain gauze, and the figure is formed by throwing one or more shots of rove weft, either white or coloured, into the shed formed by the harness flushing over the ground and clipped off afterwards. To form the figure shed, draw the harness, raise the leaf A and the standard C, and sink the other leaves, making a rising and falling shed, or centre shedding. To form the gauze, for the open shed raise B C D and F, and to form the cross shed raise E and F, in both cases sinking the others. For these sheds fine or ground weft is thrown in, the flowering shots coming between them. The shafts A and B are for the purpose of keeping a clear shed, but might be done without. These goods are now largely made by power looms, principally with gauze reeds, which see.

GAUZE HARNESS

In a true gauze harness the doups are connected with the mails or leashes of the harness, the harness twines, or leashes, acting as standards for the doups, so that any splitful of warp may be crossed or twisted differently from the others, and any kind of texture can be wrought along with the gauze without having to consider the one in connection with the other, as in the previous harness. Figs. 135 and 136 show how these harnesses are tied up; the letters refer to the same parts in both figures. The harness is shown with four cords in the row, for the back harness and the doup mail in front, and this could be repeated twice for an eight-row harness. It is better to have the rows of the harness regulated in this way to suit the gauze to be made, and have the doup leashes in one or two rows at the front, but it is not necessary for it to be so, as the doups could come on any of the mails through the harness, if desired, in case of a harness being tied up, and it being wanted to add the doup leashes for gauzing; but this is rather confusing. In any case, this method of working is now superseded.

Fig. 135

Fig. 136

A is the doup or dead leash, B the doup standard, or what answers to the doup standard in heald work. C and D are the leashes carrying the plain or lying threads, and E the leash carrying the crossing thread, the crossing in this case being one thread round two. F is the doup. Fig. 136 shows the harness drawn for the open shed, and it will be observed that the dead leash A is connected with the back harness E, so that when this leash is raised to form the shed it draws up the dead leash, also relieving the doup. There was one trouble with these dead leashes—namely, that they were liable to twist round the standards when close to them in the cumber board, sometimes being put through the same hole or the next one; but by having them in front and a little distance off this could be avoided. Wires or cords were sometimes stretched across between the lingoes to prevent the twisting. Fig. 135 shows the harness drawn for the cross shed, the doup standard being drawn up, drawing the doup up with it. The doup was fastened into the mails as shown at No. 1, Fig. 135; but a better plan is to have double-eyed mails, and fasten the doup as at No. 2. This form of harness is now superseded by one having all the doups on a shaft in front of the harness, which consists of two parts—namely, the back harness and the douping harness (which is about 3/4 in. to 1-1/2 in. in front of the former); the doups are connected with this latter harness, and all the doups may be on one shaft, whether for one, two, or more rows of standards in the front harness. The doups on the shaft are known as a ‘slip heald’ or ‘slip.’ This is a much simpler and more convenient method of working than the preceding.

Fig. 137 shows a simple and effective gauze mounting for a 4⁰⁰ jacquard, the cords being carried up to the machine in the usual way. A is the breast beam of the loom, B the reed, C the back rail, and N the yarn beam. D is the slip heald, or doup, which is simply a half-leaf of ordinary clasped heddles, made of cotton or worsted, fine or coarse, as may be desired for the quality of work to be wrought. E is the front or doup mounting, connected with the two front rows of the machine, and passing through a small cumber board in front of that for the body of the harness; it is bolted so that it can be shifted to regulate the distance between the doup harness and that of the figuring. The distance between the two harnesses may range from 3/4 in. to 1-1/2 in., or whatever is found most suitable to ease the strain on the yarn and make a clear shed. G is the cumber board, and F the body of the harness for working the figure.

Fig. 137

The method of slackening the threads that are drawn into the doups is perhaps the principal feature of this mounting. When one or more slackening bars are used it is plain that all the threads that pass over the bar that is oscillated will be slackened at once, though for figured work it may be that only a very few of these threads should be slackened, and if the remainder or any portion of them are raised by the back leashes they should be kept tight at the back so as to enable them to draw up the slack doups. It follows, therefore, that for giving good work and keeping the threads at a regular tension, every thread in the doups should have its own independent slackener. It is not absolutely necessary that this should be so; strong twist cotton or worsted yarn will work very well in a harness with one slackening bar vibrating for each shot, though it must throw an irregular strain on the yarn, and it requires to be tightly paced.

In Fig. 137 the slackening arrangement consists of a small back harness, as shown at I, through which all the whip threads are drawn; these threads then pass over one lease rod and under the next one, as shown, and then on to the harness to be drawn in according to the draught of the gauze. The harness consists of small mails attached to lingoes with twines in the same way as the lower portion of the ordinary harness is prepared, but the mails are rounded off above the eye or centre hole without having the top hole for threading the upper portion of the harness to. The cumber board of this harness must be nicely set, so that the lingoes will hang on the yarn without drawing the mails quite close on the cumber board, which soon would cut the twines. To regulate this the cumber board and back rail must be set in relation to each other and the mails of the harness so as to produce the desired effect. A medium position for working may be taken as follows:—Cumber board 12 in. behind harness and 6 in. in front of back rail. Back rail 2 in. above the level of the mails in the main harness, and cumber board of small back harness 3 in. below the level of the mails, or 5 in. lower than the top of the back rail. The back lease rod might then come in about 8 in. behind the harness. The weight of the lingoes on the back harness must be regulated to suit the strength of warp to be wrought; about 30 to 40 per lb. for, say, from 40/2 to 80/2 cotton would suit. The mails for the body of the harness may be 25’s or 30’s, or the same as for ordinary work, and those for the doup standards heavier, say 18’s or 20’s. In addition to this harness for slackening, or rather for keeping a yielding tension on the whip, there is a slackening bar supported by a lever K L M at both sides of the loom. This lever has its fulcrum at L, and is attached to the swords of the lay at M, and therefore vibrates at every beat up. The slackener acts as a positive motion, and keeps the threads from tightening up or being drawn forward by the twisting; it acts on the body of the threads, and the harness acts on them individually.

This, when properly set, is an easy motion, and produces a good firm gauze. It is a Bradford patent. Now, in reference to the working of the gauze: The harness is levelled much in the same way as for ordinary work, the mails being 1-1/2 in. or 1-3/4 in. below the level of the breast beam. The doup mails should be a little lower than those for the harness, say 3/16 in. or 1/4 in.

The shed should be closed, and begin to open again when the reed is at the fell of the cloth. Too large a shed should not be made with the doups, on account of the strain on the yarn: a small clear shed gives much more satisfactory work. The front cumber board, containing the doup leashes, may be shifted a little forward or back if thought desirable, so as to get the cross shed to spring as easily as possible, the amount of elasticity in the warp varying this considerably. The slip heald is raised for every shot by cording it to the brander or griffe of the jacquard, which for gauze work is generally a single-acting one. Springs are used for holding down the slip—a light wire spring, or, better, a piece of round indiarubber about 3/16 in. in diameter, doubled if necessary. Bridles should be attached from the shaft of the slip heald at each end and fastened to the cumber board so as to bear the draw of the springs when the harness is down; the cords connected with the jacquard for raising this shaft may then be left slack, and the size of shed may be regulated or made less than the draw of the machine, if required.

It is very important to have the doups nicely adjusted; on this depends their lasting capacity, and sometimes a very short time is sufficient to cut them to pieces if badly set. But if correctly done they will generally last for a length of time, particularly if occasionally turned on the shaft, which is more essential in working with a linen than with a cotton warp.

One of the doup standard mails with a doup through it is shown at No. 1 (Fig. 138), where it may be seen that the doup is simply drawn through the eye of the mail, and not connected with it in any way. It is only held in this position by the warp thread passing through it, and whenever the thread breaks the doup falls out of the mail. This is a trouble to the weaver, at least till she gets accustomed to it, and mails, as shown at No. 2, have been made to hold up the doup. The remedy here is often worse than the evil. The mails wear the doups, particularly if the springs draw them tight down on the eyes of the mails; and besides, they have the disadvantage that the slip heald has to be built in them after the harness is mounted, whereas with the open mails the slips can be procured anywhere quite independent of the harness. The slip heald must be set so that when the harness is down the yarn will not be drawn through the eyes of the mails by the doup sinking too low. This may be guarded against by adjusting the bridles at each side, between the slip shaft and the cumber board. The loops of the doups should pass about 1/4 in. through the eyes of the mails when at the lowest or bottom position, and the front mails being about 1/4 in. lower than the others allows the loops of the doups to be just bearing lightly on the warp, all being held up straight. The slackening bar must be arranged to work in time with the doup standards, and should not slacken the yarn too much nor too little, just keeping it at a uniform tension. The great point with tender or weak yarn is to reduce all friction to a minimum, no matter by what it is caused, and if this is done the yarn and doups, if they are of a fair quality to begin with, should both work well; but a very slight difference in setting the doup may make a great deal of difference in the working of it. A doup that may be cut to pieces in working 20 yards of cloth might work 400 or 500 yards with so little alteration as not to be noticeable to those not accustomed to the work. The slackening bar must not rise so high as to raise the yarn that is above it, nor must it sink so low as to press the whip down on the back harness board, and it must be so regulated that within these limits it will give the proper amount of slackening, and prevent the whip warp from getting tight and drawing up the small back harness.

Fig. 138

Worsted makes the best weaving doups for strong work, but for lighter work cotton is mostly used, being finer and cheaper. Sometimes polished linen yarn is used and makes a very smooth doup, but does not give the wear.

Small metallic rings are sometimes used on the loops of the doups, and the warp drawn through these rings; this suits for yarn with much fibre on it, as it keeps the fibre from getting twisted into the doups, but the rings cut the doups faster than ordinary yarn working in them would.

Instead of a slip heald in front, doups with a lingo on each have been used, with the mails for the standards as shown at No. 2, Fig. 138, so that the doups cannot fall out of them, and the yarn when drawn up by the back harness in shedding raises the doups and lingoes up with it. The weight of the lingoes must be such as will suit the strength of the warp to be used—not too heavy for it to lift nor too light, so that in the cross shed the doups would be drawn through the mails. These doups being separate, are easily built in the harness and very easily repaired by the weaver when they break, but they break too frequently. It is, of course, only for a strong warp that this method of working is suitable, and even for it, although it works very well, the principle is not good.

The gauze harness which will probably be most frequently met with, at least in the cotton trade, is shown in Fig. 138. It is an older harness than that described, having been patented in Macclesfield in 1876 in a somewhat different form. The difference between this and the preceding chiefly consists in the method adopted for slackening the yarn, and the jacquard may also be specially built to suit for this. In setting this loom the harness and mails are tied up and levelled as before, but when working the back rail is kept down, as it usually is for gauze work, say about 1/2 in. lower than the eyes of the mails. Each whip thread has its own slackener, the slackening apparatus consisting of a harness wrought either by the same jacquard that works the figure, or by an extra one, when much pattern is required.

The connections of the needles with the hooks are shown at A, the two bottom needles being connected with the two front and two back hooks, the former for working the gauze and the latter for working the slackeners. This harness is intended for a 1-round 3-gauze, and is mounted on a 10-row machine with an 8-row cylinder on it. It is not necessary that the back harness for slackening should be raised so high as the figuring harness is, and for this reason, as well as that it makes the harness more direct and avoids friction, it is tied to two sets of levers as shown at G and G¹; they are made of brass and are fastened on two rods, one about 4 in. above the other, so as not to come into contact with each other when rising or falling. The points of the levers are fastened to the two back rows of hooks as shown, and the harness is tied to wire hooks on these levers; F is the neck of the harness, D the cumber board, and N the lingoes, which are much heavier than those used for the figuring harness, from 6 to 10 per pound being the weights frequently used, according to the class or weight of the work.

The mails used on the back harness are similar to those used for the doups—that is, such as are shown at No. 1 (Fig. 138); but if these cut with the warp sawing through them, glass mails should be used. L L¹ are two rods or bars which support the warp that is drawn down between them by the slackening harness. The closer these bars are set together the greater will be the amount of slackening given to the warp when the harness is drawn; therefore these bars should be made to slide either way so that the desired slackness is obtained by setting them. About 3 in. to 4 in. apart is a good working width; the tops of the bars should be about 1 in. lower than the mails in the figuring harness, and the tops of the eyes of the mails in the back harness should be 1 in. or 1-1/4 in. lower than the rods.

Another method of arranging the needles in a jacquard for a gauze mounting is shown in Fig. 139, which is, perhaps, more convenient for the designer, as will afterwards be seen. In this harness there are 10 rows of hooks, the same as before—6 for the figuring harness and 2 for the doup standards. The doup standards are here on the hooks connected with the fourth and eighth needles, and come after the threads that the whip in them twists round, and fall in this position on the design paper, instead of both being at the end of a design—that is, on the seventh and eighth checks. For any order of twisting, the arrangement of the hooks and needles might be made to suit on the same principle.

It will be seen that in the leno jacquard, shown in Fig. 138, a number of levers and attachments are required to work the slackening harness. In order to simplify this, Messrs. Devoge & Co. have brought out a leno jacquard with which none of these levers, &c., are required, the slackening harness being tied to the two back rows of hooks in the machine. These two rows of hooks are lifted by a separate griffe, the lift of which is much less than that for working the body hooks of the machine, and which can be varied to suit the amount of slackening required. This machine is shown in Fig. 140, a view of the motion for raising the griffes of both back and body harness being given in Fig. 140a. c d (Fig. 140a) is the link connection between the bar of the griffe a a and the top lever L (Fig. 140), somewhat similar to what is used for an ordinary jacquard. To raise the small griffe at the back, it will be seen that there is a cross lever e from the links d, c to its fulcrum h on a bracket g attached to the top of the machine. The small or back griffe b is connected to this lever by the link f. The amount of lift given to the small griffe in proportion to that given to the large one will be as the length of the lever from the stud in h to that in f is to its length from the stud in h to that in d. The farther the fulcrum is pushed back in the slot in which it is fastened, the more the back griffe will be raised, the link f being always vertical. The back griffe is arranged to commence lifting slightly in advance of the front one, in order to lessen the strain on the doups. The needles are connected with the back and front hooks in this machine similarly to those in Fig. 138.

Fig. 139

The draft of a gauze in the harness is just the same as regards the doups as for shaft work; the crossing may be made from left to right, or the reverse, but the pattern must be made to suit. Some mount the harnesses and paint the patterns from right to left. About Bradford this appears to be the usual method, and it does not matter provided the mounting, drawing and designing be kept in accord; but here we shall keep to the same principle as is recognised all through—viz. mounting and designing from left to right, which is the correct method so far as drawing is concerned, and equally convenient in other respects.

Fig. 140

Fig. 140a

To design a pattern for gauze: if it is to be a simple geometrical pattern it may be put direct on the design paper; but if to be a figured pattern, a sketch should be prepared for it in the same manner as for ordinary figured patterns, whether for dress goods, curtains, or any other material. Any desired figuring can be made, providing sufficient space be left between the figures to admit of the open work being made. The figuring should be treated as the ornamentation of a plain or short twill ground figure, which is woven on a gauze ground; the figure may be entirely plain or twill upon a gauze ground, in which case it must be sufficiently plain and solid to be effective, or it may be treated as damask figuring on ornamental patches of plain or twill on a gauze ground; or, again, the gauze may form the figure and the ground be plain or twill. Any variety may be made that ingenuity can suggest, and figuring with extra warp or weft may also be adopted if desired. When about to put the pattern on design paper, it may be observed that out of the 8 rows of needles in the machine only 6 are used for figuring, the other 2 being employed for gauzing; therefore, some means must be devised for getting the pattern on the paper so as to suit this. The simplest plan is that adopted in America—viz. instead of using two rows of hooks along the jacquard for the doup standards, to leave as many hooks at the first of the machine as will correspond with the number of doup standards required for one repeat of the pattern. Suppose for the same ties as those given—100 hooks for the doups and 300 for the figure—then the cords from the first or last 100 hooks would be taken down through the two front rows of the cumber board, and those from the 300 hooks would make up the body of the harness. When mounting in this way, the jacquard would be better turned with the cards hanging over the side of the loom, as for the ‘London tie.’ This method of mounting enables the pattern to be designed for 300 hooks and painted on the design paper independently of the gauze, which can be filled in afterwards.

Fig. 141

Fig. 141 is an example of designing in this manner, using 6 rows of hooks, to suit the gauze. The pattern is put on the rows of designs numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. No. 3 is for the selvage, and the working of the doups is on Nos. 1 and 2. This is for a 1 round 2 gauze, 6 checks, or 2 splitfuls of gauze to the design; there would be 10 doups required for the 5 designs in the repeat of the pattern, and for these 10 checks are used of designs Nos. 1 and 2. The rising of the back leash of the harness to form the crossing is shown by the dots marked on the design, and as gauze is formed by raising this leash and the doup alternately, it is only necessary to take each line of the design paper for the doups, and, following up the markings for the back leashes, fill in for the doups to rise when the back leash is sunk for the gauze, taking care to keep clear of the figuring. In making gauze the doup should always rise immediately after the figuring ends, to form the first crossing, and it should also be up immediately before the next portion of the figuring begins, so that in an irregular figured pattern the gauze might frequently require to be broken to effect this, as may be seen in Fig. 141. Take the first upright line of the pattern, design No. 4: the back leash is raised for three, then the doup for three, and the figure follows. Passing on to the tenth line it will be seen that the doup rises for three after the figure, and is also up for three before the next figure begins; but, passing on to designs 7 and 8, it will be seen that the risings of the doup and back leash would not fall in regularly in threes against the figure, as it would be better if they did, and therefore the gauze is broken so as to fall in; but in small patterns of this description, when it is of importance to keep the outline of the figure as regular as possible, this can and should be remedied; instead of the outline of the figure running diagonally on the design paper in steps of one check, it should go in steps of as many checks as there are threads to the twist of the gauze in the warp and shots in each twist in the weft. This is shown in Fig. 142, where all the twisting falls in regularly with the figure. This may to a great extent be carried out with irregular figures by the designer exercising a little judgment, and when filling in the gauze make up the plain edging of the figuring to fall in with it—that is, only to break the gauze where there is room to do it effectively, and where there is not, a few dots can be added to the plain. If Figs. 141 and 142 be compared, it may be seen how this could be done: examining designs 4 and 8 above the figures, the latter below as well; but Fig. 142 shows the proper method of treating these small geometrical figures. Another point to be observed is whether all the doup leashes are to be raised together to form the gauze, or whether it is to be formed by raising every alternate doup leash and every alternate back leash, as is done in these figures. The latter method is preferable for working, as it makes an even tension on every shed, whereas if one shed is a full cross shed formed by the doups, and the reverse of this an open shed with no crossing, the cross shed will be the tighter, and produce a certain amount of plucking, with a tendency to shire in some patterns; but in case of working dices or any pattern where the top and bottom of the figure extend some distance straight across the design paper, it would be impossible for the first shed of the gauze to be formed by the doup if only every alternate doup leash was raised. Some judgment must therefore be exercised in these matters, and the best effect obtained that will suit circumstances.

Fig. 142

Now to put the patterns on design paper to suit the harness when the two front rows of the jacquard are used to work the doups, as in Fig. 138, also when any other rows are used, as in Fig. 139: the simplest way to do this—at least, for those not well accustomed to the work—is to design them on 6-row paper, as Fig. 142, and afterwards transfer them to 8-row paper, leaving the lines for the doups empty, the doup lines being afterwards filled in, as in Figs. 143 and 144. Fig. 144 has the advantage that each splitful of gauze stands alone, whereas when filling in the markings for the doups in Fig. 144, two splitfuls stand together; but a little practice makes one method as simple as the other. The dots represent the markings for the doups, and the shaded squares those for raising the back leashes to form the open shed of the gauze. The transferring of the designs from one sheet of design paper to another is, of course, a matter of trouble and expense, and may be avoided if an experienced card-cutter is to cut the cards. The design need not be transferred, but have the marks for raising the doups put on the same lines of the design paper as those for raising the back leashes for the open shed. This is shown in Fig. 145, the shaded squares being the same as in Figs. 143 and 144; but the dots, instead of being put on lines left for them, as in these figures, are put on the same lines as the shaded squares, and the card-cutter sees to their being cut on the correct lines, as in Figs. 143 and 144. In designing, different colours would be used. The shaded square should be the same colour as the figure, as they are to be cut for the lines they are on, but the dots should be of a different colour, to be cut for a different line of the card from that on which they are placed on the design—the dot on the first check of a design being the seventh hole in a row of the card, and that on the third check of a design being the last hole of a row on the card.

Fig. 143

Fig. 144

Fig. 145

Fig. 146 shows a portion of an ornamental pattern as it would be designed for a gauze ground of two threads of warp twisting round two = 4 in the split and 4 picks into each crossing of the gauze. This would require a 10-row machine, eight rows for the figuring harness and two rows for the doup standards. When two threads are twisting round two, it is not necessary to have a doup for each, though it may be desirable; but it suits very well to have both threads drawn through the same doup. It will be necessary to have a stronger doup in this case, but if the warp is very light it would have so much more to do in drawing up the heavy doup than if each thread was drawn through a very light doup that the latter had better be adopted; otherwise a stronger doup, with both threads through one, is simpler. On the pattern, the doups are raised by the dots, which must be cut on the proper line of the card, as before; both lines are dotted as if each thread had its own doup, but only the front dots of each pair are necessary. The shaded squares are for raising the crossing threads with the leashes for the open shed of the gauze. In this pattern it is necessary that the outline of the figure should go in steps of four warp ways, as there are four threads to the twist; but it is not necessary that it should go in steps of four weft ways. A better outline can be given to the figure by not adhering to this, though the perforations in the gauze will be to some extent sacrificed by being irregular; but this would be so in any case in order to raise the doup standard after the figure when the doups and leashes are gauzing alternately; they might be regularly started at one side of the figure, but this would probably make them more irregular at the other side. By following round the edges of this figure it will be seen that by a little care no blemish of any consequence need be left, though it will not be so perfect as when calculated to fall in as Fig. 145.

Fig. 146

Any variety of simple gauze texture may be used, as well as the plain and honeycomb gauze, but unless there is plenty of space and the figures are plain and large, no very intricate crossings should be attempted, unless for stripes, as they would probably mar the outline of the figure; but if not, they may be used where suitable.

Another important point in designing for gauze is that if the texture of the solid cloth is loose and that of the gauze pretty firmly twisted, the take-up of the warp may be very different when weaving. To avoid this the gauze and figure should be well intermixed, and not be in too great quantities in any one part—in fact, the gauze and plain should be constantly interchanging, and when the pattern is such that this cannot be, the textures must be regulated so that there will be about an equal quantity of warp taken up for each. A little practice will soon show this.

Nothing has been said about the description of jacquard used for working gauze, but the same principle holds good as for working with shafts. A gauze shed is taken to be a plain jacquard lift—that is, the shed formed by the single-lift jacquard raises the yarn and lets it down again before beginning to raise the following shed. This enables the doup and doup yarn to fall into their places before being drawn away to form a following shed. At the same time, we are not limited to a single-lift jacquard. If you have a double-lift jacquard, and want to work a small piece of gauze, do so; but do it correctly, or, in other words, take means to make a good job of it. Before explaining how to do this, it will be well to show where the difficulty exists. In a double-acting machine one griffe is rising when the other is falling, and in plain gauze the doup standard and leash carrying the crossing thread are raised alternately, one shot being thrown into the shed formed by each. Therefore, the same thread is up for every shot, and the thread round which it twists is always down. Now, when one griffe has raised the doup standard and the next one raises the leashes carrying the same threads, both will pass in the centre of the shed, and, as shown in Fig. 147, the crossing thread will be dragging up the lying thread from the position shown by the under dotted line, thereby causing considerable friction on the yarn, which must be detrimental to a fine or weak warp, and is inclined to drag the doup through the eyes of their standards; but as the harness in coming to the centre slackens the warp threads, and also as the slackener begins to act when the harness begins to rise, the threads will be further slackened in those sheds where the doups follow the back leashes, and this reduces the friction. It may, however, be entirely avoided by raising the lying threads to the mid position to meet the descending griffe, and then let down with it. A simple method of doing this is to have the leashes carrying the lying threads through a separate slip of cumber board at the back, and knots on them above it, so that when it is raised all the lying threads will be drawn up with it.

The cumber board can be raised by a cam, or in any other suitable way. (See Journal Weaving for Scotch Carpets.)

Fig. 147

These leashes might also be raised by means of a shaft through loops in them, or with bars under the jacquard hooks, in the same way as is done in twilling harnesses (which see), but with a special motion to raise and lower them. In Fig. 147, the dotted line A, B shows the middle position or centre of the traverse of the yarn in shedding.

Although this is the proper means to adopt to work gauze satisfactorily with a double-acting jacquard, or with any double-acting shedding motion, it may be that small portions of gauze, such as a few stripes up a web, are wanted without the trouble of making any special arrangements for it. Good strong twist cotton yarn will work very well, if nicely tempered, in a double-acting machine. The slackeners can be arranged by leaving a few hooks apart to work them with, and cords tied to these hooks and let down at the back, in the same manner as in the gauze harness (Fig. 138), which will do very well. When three or more shots are thrown into each shed of the gauze—that is, between the crossings—there will be much less friction than when the crossing takes place at each shot, as it is only at the crossing the friction takes place.

One source of annoyance in working gauze is the wear on the doups, which requires them to be changed frequently and adds cost to the production. It has often been attempted to work the gauze by other means, and for some classes of work this has proved successful. One of the best arrangements, and one that is largely used, is the gauze reed, which is almost entirely adopted about Glasgow for weaving leno curtains in the power loom; it is also employed for other classes of work, but is limited in its use. It will not supply the place of a gauze harness.

THE GAUZE REED.

This is principally used for working leno curtains or Madras muslins in power looms. The texture of these fabrics is a plain gauze ground, the figure being formed by one or more colours of thick soft weft, thrown in and bound for the figure, but flushed or floated over the ground, to be cut off afterwards. The reed is wrought in conjunction with a harness, the reed forming the ground of the fabric and the harness the figuring. The harness is mounted in the same way as a half-harness, or for half the warp, and the reed does the work of the doups. The gauze reed will suit for gauze up to 55 threads per inch in the reed, but is more used for fabrics ranging from 30 to 50 threads per inch. A portion of the reed is given in Fig. 148, in which it will be seen that it consists of the usual dents set in ribs, and a set of half-dents, perforated at the points which are set into the lower rib of the reed behind the others, and lie about half-way through the splits in a slightly slanting position. The gauze reed works behind the slay and in front of the harness. It should be about 1/2 in. behind the slay when the cranks are at the back centre, so as to leave sufficient room for clearance between them.

Fig. 148

Fig. 149

Fig. 150

A good method of working the reed is shown in Fig. 149, which is a back view. A is a rocking shaft supported by brackets, as a, on the top rail of the loom; B is a lever projecting towards the front of the loom, and the rod b from it supports one end of the reed; C is another lever on the shaft A, projecting backwards, and the rod D connects it with the tappet treadles, so that when the treadle is pressed down the reed rises; about 3-1/2 in. is the usual height for it to rise. F is the upper rib of the gauze reed, and F¹ the lower one. G is the yoke of the reed. On the yoke is fastened a bar P P, connected with the strap which passes round the top rib of the reed. I I are two projections on the bar P P, through which the slide rod E E¹ passes and is fastened at the top to a bracket C on the top of the loom, and at the bottom it fits into a socket or stand N fixed to the ground; the reed slides up and down on this rod. H is a tube round the slide rod between the projections I I, and is about 1/2 in. shorter than the distance between them; to the bottom of this tube is fixed the support H¹ for the dipping rod K, which, when the yarn under it is very tight, can yield 1/2 in., along with the tube H. The reed is not positive in falling, but when raised by the tappet it falls by its own weight and that of the weight-box L, which slides on the rod E E¹. The weight-box is fastened by a rod M to the crank on the bar which supports the dipping rod, and weights it as well as the reed. Small weights, as R, about 1/4 lb. weight, can be placed in the weight-box till as much weight as is required is put on. Fig. 151 gives a view of the gauze reed mounting, with the gauze or cross-shed open. Every alternate thread of the warp is drawn into one of the gauze dents, and every other one into the harness, as shown. The harness is levelled 2 in. or 2-1/2 in. below the level of the breast beam; or, having the slay levelled with the race 1/2 in. below the breast beam when the cranks are at the top centre, push back the slay till the cranks are at the back centre, and place a straight-edge across the race, and the under edge of the straight-edge where it passes the front row of the harness will give the height for the eyes of the mails. The back shell E should be set 1/2 in. below the level of the breast beam, and should be made to vibrate with a tappet, which should lower it when the gauze shed is opened, and keep it raised for the figuring shots. A shows the position of the weaver’s reed, B is the gauze reed, C the dipping rod, D the heck or ravel which is on the harness under the harness reed or cumber board F; the ravel should be about 6 in. above the yarn and 3 in. below the cumber board, making the latter 9 in. or 10 in. above the yarn. The ravel is like a small harness reed with only one rib on it, which is placed behind the harness, being covered with an iron tube to strengthen it; in front a flat iron rod is fastened above the ends of the dents and serves as the second rib. Three wires are stretched along the ravel to keep the harness steady, in the same way that they are stretched along a harness reed, but three are sufficient, instead of having one for each row of harness. The ravel is shown in full in Fig. 150; it is about 1-1/2 in. deep (or across it), and the cumber board 3 in. deep; it is for the purpose of drawing the yarn in the harness to either side, so that when the gauze reed is rising the half dents may pass to the right and left of the threads in the harness alternately; it is this which gives the gauze twist. Two bars A A¹ (Fig. 150) extend from the ends of the frame of the heck; these slide in brackets C C¹ fastened to the sides of the loom. The lateral motion is given to it by a lever B B¹ with its fulcrum at B¹; this lever has a bowl D on its lower end, which is acted on by a wheel E driven at the proper speed to suit the shedding. E¹ is a face view of this wheel, which has a projection on it for shifting the lever.

Sometimes the motion is imparted to the lever so as to shift the ravel just when it is required—that is, before the gauze reed has risen to form the shed; and sometimes the ravel is shifted a part of the way at each shot of figuring, and has completed its traverse before the gauze reed has risen; this latter makes a more gradual pressure on the harness, and avoids any sudden plucking. When the wheel E acts upon the lever the ravel is drawn to the right, and when released the spring F, fastened from the side of the loom to the end of the ravel, draws it back again. The traverse of the ravel should be about 3/4 in. C² is a separate view of the brackets C and C¹.

Sometimes the heck is on the yarn between the reed and the harness, instead of being on the harness; in this case there must be about 8 in. between the reed and the harness, and the heck or ravel rests about half-way between them. The harness is wrought with a double-lift machine and three tappets. One tappet which is much like a plain wyper tappet, but with less dwell on it, acts on one of the treadles, which is connected by a rod and lever to one of the griffes: this raises the flowering shed, the lift being about 3-1/2 in., and the flowering shot is thrown in as in ordinary work, the sheds being close when the cranks are at the top centre or a little over it. As soon as this shot is thrown in, when the cranks are a little over the back centre, the second griffe is raised by another tappet. As this takes place before the cylinder is in against the needles, all the yarn in the harness is raised; the reason for raising it is to get all the harness yarn clear of the half dents of the reed, so that it can be shifted over them by the ravel. The gauze reed is raised by the third tappet; it begins to rise shortly after the second griffe, or when the cranks are a little past the top centre during the same revolution. The yarn raised by the first griffe begins to fall at the same time that the reed begins to rise; the second griffe raises the bottom yarn till it meets the top yarn of the first shed descending, at which time the ravel should be fully shifted, and the points of the half dents rising should be 3/4 in. below the harness yarn. As the harness falls and the reed rises, the yarn in the former will pass down at the opposite sides of the half-dents to which it was before being raised; a ground shot is then thrown in (this is the second ground shot), and the reed descends, taking the yarn in it down level with that in the harness. The harness is again raised as before for the next flowering shot.

When the reed is raised to form the shed for the ground shot no card is required to pass over the cylinder of the jacquard, and to prevent one passing the sneck or shears is raised for this shot, so that the cylinder is not turned. The reed must be raised in time to have the shed open for the passage of the shuttle, but keeping it a little late requires less lift to be given to the second shed which is being raised to get the bottom yarn clear of the half dents of the reed. The above description is intended for weaving fabrics with one cover, or one colour of flowering shot, as when the pattern is in white or a single colour, as it often is; but when two or more colours of figuring weft are used, the flowering sheds might be opened with one griffe working the machine single-acting, and constructing and timing the tappets to suit. One tappet would then open two or more sheds for the flowering; the second and third tappets would act on the bottom yarn and reed as before. It is, however, usual to work the machine double-acting, and to construct the tappets to raise the griffes alternately for two covers. No. 1 tappet would raise one griffe, No. 2 tappet would raise the other griffe; then a small wing on No. 1 tappet would lift the bottom yarn, and No. 3 tappet would raise the reed, the sneck being lifted at the last beat of the cylinder to prevent it from turning. For three or more covers the tappets would require to be arranged to suit in a similar manner. Fig. 151a is a front view of the position of the yarn in the reed when the flowering shed is drawn. Only a portion of the harness would be raised for each shot, as, say, the threads 1, 1, the remainder 2, 2, being sunk. After the flowering shots are thrown in, the bottom yarn in the harness 2, 2 has to be shifted to the other side of the half dents for the gauze shed. It is therefore raised up to meet the threads 1, 1 coming down. All are then shifted together, and when the reed is raised the position of the harness yarn is shown at the crosses; 0000 shows the position it was in at the previous ground shot. The dots on the half dents show the position of the yarn in them in relation to that in the harness 2, 2 when the reed is at rest, the yarn in both reed and harness being on a level. The reed could be wrought turned upside down with a harness, but all the loose flowering weft would require to be below. In this case there is no necessity for getting the under shed clear of the gauze dents for changing it with the ravel to form the ground shed; but this is an objectionable method of working, particularly with a light pattern, on account of the heavy shed that has to be raised. If the flushed yarn was thrown to the top and the reed turned upside down, the only way to work the heck would be on the harness below the mails, which would require it to be as deep as a reed or cumber board, in order to let the lingoes fall, and this would not answer very well.

Fig. 151 Fig. 151a

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